Title: At the Sign of the Last Chance
Author: Owen Wister
In: The Mammoth Book of Westerns (Jon E. Lewis)
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Westerns
Dates read: 13th June 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2013
5th sentence, 74th page: “He oughtn’t,” said Henry.

He’s a western cowboy who has stopped into the Last Chance. What follows is a lot of reminicsing and discussing of those that they all know.

This is a nice little western short story. All written in the first person POV. Something that I quite enjoy when I’m reading – after all, it helps you to situate yourself within the characters’ mindset so much quicker than any other POV.

This story is basically a huge gossip fest. It didn’t have that feeling of beginning, middle and end that I’m somewhat used to. But rather, it was a series of stories and anecdotes about the people that are known. Kind of more realistic because of this – after all, that’s how conversations go in real life. And to a degree, how stories are told.

I really enjoyed the language of this short story. It wasn’t necessarily incredibly engaging as a tale to read – but it was really approachable. It was nice to read a short story that I didn’t have to think too hard about and reread sentences to understand what was going on. It was just… simple. Pleasantly simple.

<- Wine on the Desert

Early Americana ->

Image source: Hachette Australia